Queen Elizabeth and her Corgis: An eight-decade love affair

By MiNDFOOD

Queen Elizabeth and her Corgis: An eight-decade love affair
Are the Queen's dogs the world's most pampered pooches? Take a look at a history of the Queen's favourite canine and a peek at their royal menu.

See photos of the Queen, either within the palace walls, at her various residences, or even flying high above Britain, and you will see a flurry of fluff forever at her heels.

Her closest companions, her corgis and dorgis, have been in her family ever since she was a little girl. At 18 she was gifted her own corgi and since then has kept up a lifelong fascination with the breed.

In an interview with Hello! Magazine, former royal chef Darren McGrady has revealed just how pampered the Queen’s pooches really were. “When I worked at the palace, we actually had a royal menu for the dogs,” Darren said. “It would be chosen and sent to us in the kitchen every month by Mrs Fennick, who took care of all the dogs at Sandringham.”

“It would list each day what the dogs were to have”, he continued. “One day it would be beef, the next day chicken, the next day lamb, the next day rabbit and it alternated through those days. The beef would come in, we would cook it, dice it into really fine pieces and then we did the same with the chicken. We’d poach them, and again chop them really really small to make sure there were no bones so the dogs wouldn’t choke.”

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“Prince William and Prince Harry used to shoot rabbits on the Windsor Estate, so we’d get the rabbits, they’d have to be cleaned and then cooked,” he added. “Some days some of the dogs were – shall we say for a better word – a little bunged up so we’d have to add cabbage on the menu, and then other days we’d actually put rice in there for the other way. It really was a case of following the menu.”

Darren also alluded to the strict feeding routine whereby the Queen would feed all her corgis after she had finished her own tea. “Every day the Queen’s footman would come down to the kitchen at around two or three in the afternoon, and take the dog food upstairs to feed the royal corgis. They each had their own bowls,” said the chef. “The Queen would feed them herself, I think after she’d had her tea.”

The dogs were never far from the Queen, travelling with her and Prince Phillip wherever they went, and making their way through Buckingham Palace as they pleased. Sadly, the Queen’s beloved corgi Holly passed away in 2018, leaving the dog-loving monarch with her two dorgis, Candy and Vulcan, and one corgi, Willow. “It is sad about Holly, and it’s also quite sad that the Queen has said she’s not going to replace them,” said Darren. “For years while I was there, one would die and she’d get another one. She always had about 12 but now she’s saying I’m not going to outlive them, so when they die they’re just going to die off.”

However, when Vulcan died of ‘old age’ in 2020, the Queen’s only remaining dorgi was Candy. So before long the Queen did  get another one, before long Candy was joined by another dorgi pup named Fergus and a corgi pup named Muick in 2021.

Take a look at the Queen’s love affair with corgis in the pictures below.

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